According to the mayor, city police seized one handgun and made several arrests for drug possession offenses, along with four arrests for attempting to escape police in the Hall Manor neighborhood on South 15th Street this past week.

City housing and public works crews also made 126 property inspections, handed out 33 property violations and four citations for structurally unsafe buildings, Thompson added.

"We are seeing a serious drop in our violent crimes, particularly of 0.8 percent in the last few months in these target areas," Thompson said. "These 0.8 percent reductions in violent crimes are the result of the neighborhood safe zones."

The program, launched after a similar press event in late February, consists of teams of additional police officers to canvas targeted high crime areas along with city inspectors such as housing officials.

The ultimate goal, Thompson said, is not only to reduce crime but to send a message to property owners and residents that the city is focused on improvement.

"We don't want to go in with a heavy hand and just cite violations because we have homeowners in there who are on fixed incomes," she said. "... We do get federal funding every year to assist people to get their houses fixed up."

Public works crews also identified 51 lights in the South 15th Street area in need of repair or replacement and work release crews under supervision from the department of corrections helped remove a significant amount of trash from the neighborhood, Thompson added.

Thompson announced Hall Manor as the fourth neighborhood targeted by the initiative at a press conference off South 15th Street last week on the eve of the city's primary election, but refused to announce the location of the fifth zone, slated to begin Thursday.

While Thompson lost to Eric Papenfuse in the primary, she said she will continue the safe zones approach until her term ends and plans to encourage whoever is elected in her place to keep the program, as well.

"It's about rebuilding the neighborhood and stabilizing it," she said. "I hope that whoever the mayor is will understand this and, if they choose to tweak it, that they not get rid of it, because it's working."

Funding for the safe zones, including overtime pay for police positioned in the areas, is being provided by Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico's Violent Crime Task Force, Thompson said.

In addition to this, several officers from neighboring jurisdictions will begin assisting city police on regular patrol this weekend, Thompson said. Marsico and the county's Crisis Response Team cooperated with Thompson to get the extra officers in place.

In excess of 10 crisis team officers will begin assisting patrol officers in the city this weekend, said Susquehanna Township police Chief Robert Martin, who heads the Crisis Response Team.

The team, comprised of officers from several municipal departments, made a similar commitment to assist the city last year from August to December, Martin said.

"The officers have done these before, we have a plan; we have a template," Martin said. "We're going to be a directed patrol, we're going to be targeting certain locations and assisting in certain calls if they get backed up."

Last year, Martin's team racked up a total of 70 arrests, 193 traffic stops and served 130 warrants in the city, according to Martin's statistics. Team members also recovered six guns, two stolen vehicles and assisted Harrisburg police directly on 45 separate calls, he added.

Funding for those officers, including gas and overtime, will be reimbursed to the municipalities through funding from the district attorney's Violent Crimes Task Force, Martin said.

The task force is also continuing to fund occasional foot patrols by city police in the Allison Hill and midtown areas separate from the safe zones, said city police Chief Pierre Ritter.

"They are not run on a daily basis, but we do them sporadically as we see the need," Ritter said of the foot patrols, announced by Thompson in April after a rash of violent crimes.

Marsico was not immediately available for comment Thursday afternoon regarding the task force and funding for city and county policing operations.

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